Netflix backs COVID-19 film and TV relief fund for France

Netflix and Audiens - the social protection group of the French cultural sector – have created a new COVID-19 Film and TV Emergency Relief Fund to help the hardest hit workers in the television and cinema industry of France.

Netflix will donate €1m to Audiens to help launch the fund, which is being set up in agreement with the Minister of Culture represented by the Centre National du Cinema (CNC).

The grant is available to the most vulnerable freelancers in the audiovisual and movie sectors, who live project to project - including carpenters, electricians, and hair and make-up artists - and cannot work due to the near global production shut down.

“We’re grateful to be able to work with Audiens to support the hardest hit workers in TV and film production, who are a part of the internationally admired french creative industry. In addition to the support we give to the crews, casts and technical partners involved in our productions, we also want to help those who most need financial assistance in the sector more broadly, especially freelancers hit by the current crisis.” said Damien Couvreur, director of original Series at Netflix.

For Isabelle Thirion, social development director at Groupe Audiens: “The funds will help us maintain emergency support we have put in place for the most fragile workers from the cultural industries, in addition to our usual activities. One of Audiens’ core values is solidarity, and we want to thank Netflix for contributing to support freelancers from TV and cinema industries in these difficult times for the media and culture at large”.

The creation of this fund is part of an announcement Netflix made 20 March to set up a $100m fund for creatives whose jobs have been affected by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Most of those funds will go towards support for the hardest hit workers on Netflix’s own productions in France and around the world. Netflix’s donation to Audiens, as well as to other organisations around the world (UK, Italy, Spain, etc.), is part of the $15m of the hardship fund that will be dedicated to providing  emergency relief to out-of-work crew across the broader film and television industry in the countries.

For more information about the fund, application process and eligibility criteria, please visit: https://www.audiens.org/actu/fonds-netflix-audiens.html